Visa (NYSE: V), a global leader in digital payments, in today announced the launch of a new white paper, Privacy and security for women-led SMBs in digital financial services, which examines how women entrepreneurs perceive privacy and security risks and what those perceptions mean for trust, adoption, and sustained use of digital financial services (DFS).
Developed under the Digital Finance for All (DFA) initiative, a Visa funded partnership with the GSMA Mobile for Development Foundation, the research focuses on women led small and micro businesses (SMBs) and offers practical considerations for DFS providers and ecosystem stakeholders to strengthen trust, improve user control, and expand safe access to digital finance.
The white paper is grounded in primary research in Kenya, one of the world’s most dynamic DFS markets, and incorporates consumer insights from Visa’s Consumer Empowerment studies in Kenya and across Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA).
The white paper highlights that privacy and security are not only technical requirements but central trust drivers that directly influence whether women led SMBs progress beyond basic services such as person to person transfers into savings, credit, and broader business tools.
Key Insights from the Research
- Perceptions shape adoption: Only 11% of consumers fully understand how their data is used, while 85% report concerns about unauthorised access, reinforcing caution and limiting deeper DFS use.
- Transparency drives loyalty: More than 79% of consumers say transparent communication about data use is a decisive factor in continuing to share digital data
- A persistent perception and expectation gap limits value: Many women led SMBs expect DFS to be safe, transparent, and user friendly, but still perceive products as risky or opaque, leading them to restrict usage and reducing the benefits that DFS can unlock for business growth
- Privacy and security are ecosystem wide. The report underscores the shared responsibility of providers, fintechs, banks, regulators, and consumer organisations in improving protections, communications, and recourse mechanisms
“Trust is foundational to the digital economy. Through the Digital Finance for All partnership with GSMA, we are supporting evidence based, practical guidance that helps providers build transparent, user centred experiences,” said Michael Berner, Senior Vice-President Southern & Eastern Africa, Visa. ” This white paper offers a clear action framework to improve privacy, security, and recourse so more women led SMBs can engage confidently with digital finance.”
The paper also sets out concrete considerations for DFS providers to close the trust gap, including designing for privacy from the start, simplifying data practices and communication, expanding granular user controls, enabling discreet access and transactional privacy, strengthening gender sensitive recourse, partnering to scale inclusive solutions, and establishing metrics to track progress.